Wednesday, February 17th, 2010RealClearSports: Despite Controversy, Olympics a Success for NBCBy Art Spander That was an interesting report from the Wall Street Journal, the piece which said the luge track for the Olympics, the one where a young man crashed to his death, the one designed to be steeper, faster and narrower than any in the past, would allow racers to reach speeds some officials said were unsafe. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Friday, January 29th, 2010RealClearSports: Thanks, David Stern for Doing the Right ThingBy Art Spander Thanks, David Stern. Thanks for doing what any sane-thinking person would have done, suspending the two Washington Wizards players who were so stupid, so arrogant to bring guns to practice. Thanks for attempting to restore to society some sense of what is right and wrong. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Friday, January 22nd, 2010RealClearSports: Tiger News Won’t Die DownBy Art Spander LA QUINTA, Calif. — The back cover of the tabloid New York Post was what we would expect, a photo of a Jets running back. The team’s biggest game in years is Sunday against the Colts. Overkill is permissible. Jets, Jets Jets. But that’s the back cover. © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Friday, January 15th, 2010RealClearSports: There Are No Morals in These StoriesBy Art Spander Was sport always this crazy? Did basketball players 30 years ago think they needed a bigger arsenal than Wyatt Earp? Did football coaches leave town faster than a guy being chased by a sheriff and then get a royal welcome the next place they put down their clipboard? © RealClearSports 2010 |
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Friday, August 28th, 2009RealClearSports.com: Sports No Longer Respite from Messy WorldBy Art Spander Connect the dots if you can. The man who used to coach University of Kentucky basketball, Billy Gillispie, was arraigned on a charge of drunken driving. The University of Wisconsin is tossing away $425,000 a year by terminating advertising agreements with MillerCoors and Anheuser-Busch in the “ongoing battle against alcohol abuse.” No, it’s not the people making the stuff who are entirely at fault, although they want us to believe you can’t have a good time at a game without a brew or something stronger.
It’s we folk of little self-control who cause the problem. But someone has to take a stand. TCU and SMU did just that, but for an interesting reason. Anheuser has produced cans of Bud Light in school colors, as if the more you drink the more you’re supposed to be backing the old alma mater. According to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, TCU’s associate director of communications, Lisa Albert, said, ” . . . we do not want TCU students, parents of TCU students and stakeholders of the university to think we support this program.” This has been quite a week for sport, an activity once described in the famed 18th-century dictionary of the Englishman Samuel Johnson as “tumultuous merriment.” How tumultuously merry would anyone consider Rick Pitino? Or the execs in the National Hockey League as they wrestle a maverick from Canada for ownership of the Phoenix Coyotes? Or the ballplayers who learn their drug tests were seized improperly by the government? Or Mr. Gillispie — who for loyalty’s sake, we hope — was sipping Kentucky bourbon, proving his heart was in the right place, if not his brain. A former California governor and later U.S. Supreme Court chief justice named Earl Warren once said, “I always turn to the sports pages first. They record people’s accomplishments. The front page has nothing but man’s failures.” Earl was around in the fantasy world of the 1940s and ’50s, when an athlete’s peccadilloes were not considered important. Jock journalists concentrated on touchdowns and runs batted in and winked at what could be judged criminal or antisocial behavior. If it didn’t happen between the lines, then it didn’t happen. Sometimes — sometimes — you wish it were that head-in-the-sand way once more. Plaxico Burress shooting himself in the groin? The whole agonizing business with Michael Vick? These are people’s accomplishments? ESPN can get on your nerves with its self-indulgence, but the network is to be congratulated for the nightly 10 best plays of the day. For a few wonderful seconds of hand-eye coordination and dexterity, we are reminded that sport is fun and games. Otherwise, we have Pitino acting like a would-be Clarence Darrow, defending himself and questioning the judgment of a Louisville TV station to break into a report on Ted Kennedy’s death and show videotapes of the woman who claimed Pitino raped her. Or the estranged wife of convicted NBA game-fixer ref Tim Donaghy saying he’s been “treated unfairly.” Pitino and Donaghy created their own problems. If you do things that either are stupid or illegal, or both, you pay the price. Maybe half of what Pitino was preaching was true. “My wife and family don’t deserves to suffer because of the lies,” he said. But it’s also true he had a liaison with the woman. That was no lie. And whether Donaghy is guilty of a parole violation or just victim of a misunderstanding, well, if the man hadn’t bet on games he was officiating, then he wouldn’t have been sent to prison in the first place. Sport, tumultuous merriment, has turned into a list of daily accusations and apologies. Patrick Kane, the hockey player, tried to use a cab driver as a puck, and now Kane is sorry. Oakland Raiders head coach Tom Cable is going to be interviewed by police in Napa, Calif., about his alleged role in a confrontation that left an assistant with a battered jaw. The world’s a mess. Always has been. So we turned to sport for the presumed brief escape from that mess. For decades, we were successful because the unwritten rule was that if someone broke a rule, the possible story remained unwritten. No longer. Earl Warren to the contrary, the failures listed on the sports pages run from Louisville to Lawrenceburg, the town where Gillispie was halted. The days of the All-American boy who was diligent and selfless are numbered. It’s been a great run for attorneys, if not so good for their clients. Someone’s always making news, and except in rare cases, such as at the U. of Wisconsin, too the news is bad. As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009. - - - - - - http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/08/28/sports_no_longer_respite_from_messy_world.html |
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Tuesday, August 4th, 2009RealClearSports: Legalized Sports Betting Is InevitableBy Art Spander Legalized sports gambling is coming. Bet on it. There’s opposition from the leaders of the pro and college leagues. You already know that. It doesn’t matter. This isn’t an issue of being pure and saintly, it’s an issue of reality, an issue where already one state, Delaware, said it will allow wagering on NFL games and a gubernatorial candidate from another, Christy Mihos of Massachusetts, would hope his state follows the lead. The worry is games will be rigged, that organized crime will call the shots, that when gambling becomes legit in other places, as it is in Nevada, sports will lose their integrity, and without that there’s no reason to play because there’s no reason to believe. Yet as you already know, gambling, particularly on NFL games, is universal. Illegal, but universal. Point spreads, that’s all we ever hear or read about. Are the Patriots six over the Bills? And we’re told those spreads, out of Vegas or Atlantic City or Reno, keep things honest, because if the numbers change dramatically everyone from NFL security to the tavern owner who distributes the cards gets suspicious. The country is going broke. States are hopelessly in debt. California, for one, is unable to pay teachers or health care providers and others who make our society what it must be. Taxes on gambling would help play those workers. It’s the economy, stupid. It was a campaign phrase in 1992 and never has lost its significance. When employment is down, foreclosures are up. Legalized gambling sounds a lot better than the fire department dropping 50 people because it can’t afford them. Americans are sometimes much too puritanical. And hypocritical. Great Britain has bookmakers every 25 feet, or so it seems, laying odds on everything. The British Open is a bettor’s paradise, and names such as Jack Nicklaus and Tom Watson were known to place a few quid on themselves over the years. There have been no great scandals in the UK, at least for gambling, Plenty of sex scandals — the Profumo Affair, as a start — but nobody has questioned the Manchester United scores. On the contrary, every few years, some kid is accused of shaving points in an American college basketball game. Pete Rose bet on horse races. And baseball. But did he ever affect the outcome of a game? The 1919 Chicago White Sox, the Black Sox, of which eight players who despised their parsimonious owner Charles Comiskey conspired to throw the 1919 World Series, are the ultimate example of how gambling can destroy sports. But their sport wasn’t destroyed. Joe Maloof owns the Sacramento Kings. Joe Maloof also owns a casino in Las Vegas. “When it’s regulated,” he told USA Today about gambling, “it’s safer. There’s no hanky panky.” No attempt by an official, such as former referee Tim Donaghy, to make deals with gamblers. The image the pro leagues want to exploit is of some guy with a cigar and pinky ring hovering over a quarterback an hour before kickoff. The hoods aren’t going to be in control. Only a few days ago half the mayors in New Jersey were accused of taking bribes. Maybe we should rethink the idea of politics being legal. And if the leagues are so concerned that legalized gambling will turn their sports into chaos, how come the Connecticut Sun of the WNBA, a league subsidized by the NBA, play home games at a casino resort? A lot of sleight of hand taking place. “The hypocrisy is just mind-boggling,” Ray Lesniak, a New Jersey state senator, told USA Today, alluding to the big four pro leagues. “The only reason they’re objecting is they’re not getting a piece of the action. Sports betting is legal throughout the world. Billions of dollars are bet here illegally in the U.S. It hasn’t destroyed soccer and other sports overseas, and it won’t destroy sports here.” The NFL, NBA, NHL and Major League Baseball have asked a federal court to stop Delaware. If that doesn’t take place, nothing and no one will stop sports gambling from becoming legal in every state. Already, New York is terrified its citizens will jump in their cars and motor down the interstate, betting money in Delaware that could have been bet back home. The experts — academicians, politicians — already are making that point. A decision has been made. Whether it’s out of necessity or frivolity doesn’t mean a great deal. It’s the difference of opinion that makes horse races, said Mark Twain. Gambling has been a major part of what made the NFL. Legal is better than illegal. Bet on it. As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. He was recently honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009. - - - - - - http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/08/03/legalized_sports_betting_is_inevitable_96439.html |
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Friday, July 24th, 2009RealClearSports: ESPN Rarely Exercises Caution, Why Now?By Art Spander So the world leader in avoiding stories it alone determines not to be true has had a change of opinion. Covering the civil case involving Ben Roethlisberger is, according to the announcement by ESPN, “the right thing to do.” After, in tactics that would have impressed the old Soviet Union bosses, ESPN attempted to avoid all mention of the situation. Which might have worked if the issue hadn’t been covered in every daily television sports roundup and radio talk show. The issue here is responsibility. It’s one thing when a coach says his quarterback forgot the play. That’s sports. It’s something else when an individual is accused of rape. As was Kobe Bryant six years ago. As was Ben Roethlisberger a few days ago. That’s life. Dirty, nasty, how-did-it-happen life. There are two sides every time a well-paid athlete is accused of bedding a young woman who later claims it was against her will. She knew exactly what she was doing, and now months later is attempting to hit the guy in the wallet big time, taking advantage of a reputation or a bankbook. Or the jock, raised on entitlement, figured as in everything else from the time he was about age 15 the rules of society didn’t apply to him and because he was rich and famous would never be prosecuted. That another non-sports sports story involving ESPN, or at least announcer Erin Andrews, illegally photographed in her hotel room, was crashing some of the front pages at the same moments could only be described as fateful. One tale had nothing to do with the other, but they became linked. July is a quiet month for sports journalism, meaning a bad month for sports journalism. Baseball is grinding away, relatively unchanged from the way it had been in May and June. NFL camps are yet to begin. The British Open, as compelling as the most recent might have been, is merely a blip on any screen. So the smallest of incidents are overplayed, not to imply that what happened to Andrews was in any way minor — it was disgraceful. And surely when a man who has won two Super Bowls, including the most recent, is involved, we’re going to pay attention. ESPN did just that. What it didn’t do, until Wednesday, was treat the story the way it normally does when a sporting celebrity, say its special favorite, Terrell Owens, is involved. ESPN brings out the big artillery and big names, lawyers, former coaches, and studio analysts to attack our senses. There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s just around midnight, there’s nothing left. Conversely, with Roethlisberger, there was plenty left. ESPN, when the civil suit alleging sexual assault against Roethlisberger was filed in a Nevada court, issued a memo to all its outlets and reporters, “do not report.” One feels sorry for Roethlisberger if the suit by one Andrea McNulty, claiming a year ago he lured her to his room at the Harrah’s hotel at Lake Tahoe during the annual celeb golf tournament, is only an attempt at gold-digging. One feels sorry for McNulty, a penthouse concierge, if her story that Roethlisberger demanded she fix a broken TV in his room and then attacked her is true. One feels no less sorry for ESPN which, if it backed away from its responsibility as a news outlet only to protect its acknowledged relationship with Roethlisberger, lost more than a minimum of credibility. It was July 2003 when Kobe Bryant was accused of persuading a concierge at hotel outside Vail, Colo., to come to his room. Now it is July 2009 when Ben Roethlisberger is accused of persuading a concierge at Nevada hotel to come to his room. ESPN was all over the Kobe story, sending reporters and attorneys from Los Angeles and Washington as the trial unfolded. Maybe Roethlisberger never comes to trial. Maybe he doesn’t deserve to come to trial — although then again, possibly he does. But why the shift in ESPN’s approach? “Based on the sensitive nature of the story and other factors we mentioned,” ESPN’s Bill Hoffheimer told Pro Football Talk, “we initially exercised caution and did not report it.” That philosophy is admirable, except it runs counter to the very existence of ESPN which, while most of the time does a fine job, rarely can be described as exercising caution. The network delights in letting us know everything its workers accomplish, even when little more than “confirming” a story that first appeared somewhere else, such as Fox Network or Associated Press. You wish it would confirm why it treated the Ben Roethlisberger story in a most unusual manner, like not treating it at all. As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.
- - - - - - http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/23/espn_rarely_exercises_caution_why_now.html© RealClearSports 2009 |
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Friday, July 10th, 2009RealClearSports: An Unstable Sporting WorldBy Art Spander Bill Bradley, the basketball great, “Dollar Bill” with the Knicks and then U.S. Senator, said maybe more than once the great change in sports is change. Teams and players used to be as immobile as an oak. It was reassuring. We knew who was where. Now it’s near chaos. The LPGA is dumping its commissioner. The NBA has shrunk its salary cap. Ron Artest, for about the hundredth time — or does it just seem that way — is joining another club in the NBA, the Lakers. The San Francisco 49ers are intent on becoming the Santa Clara 49ers, although no way they use that name. When you live or play in California, instability is a way of life. The Sacramento Kings want to move. The San Diego Chargers want to move. The Oakland Raiders want to move. The Oakland A’s want to move. Probably tied in with the San Andreas Fault. But we crazies on the West Coast don’t have a patent on this stuff. The Nets are trying to get out of Jersey and go to Brooklyn. The Dodgers, of course, got out of Brooklyn and went to L.A., but that was when Joe Torre still was a teenager. In Brooklyn. Even Europe is in for a massive sporting overhaul. The great soccer teams are ready to give the back of the hand to the wusses. The thinking is why should Real Madrid and the guys who spent millions on players such as Cristiano Renaldo be unable to recoup their investment, being forced to play lesser clubs in their own country? According to Matthew Syed of the Times of London, geography isn’t going to mean much any more. What will count, as in the United States, is wealth. So Real Madrid and FC Barcelona, and their global superstars, will be facing Manchester United or Bayern Munich or AC Milan. As Syed asks, “Would Chelsea make more cash playing regularly against Wigan Athletic and Hull City, as at present, or Barcelona and Inter Milan in a Super League?” The LPGA isn’t making enough cash with Carolyn Bivens as commissioner. The tough economic times and her rigid policies — not including the intolerance of trying to force the ladies to speak English or take a hike –have stripped the organization of numerous tournaments. There’s a rebellion under way. People who ought to be worrying about signing their scorecards have been signing a petition. It’s all about freedom, we’re told. Freedom for golfers to speak their mind. Freedom for team players to leave when they choose. Freedom for franchises to look for some over-eager, misguided community to build them a new stadium or ballpark or arena. The old reserve clause was a form of slavery. This is a form of confusion. Is Jason Kidd coming, going or staying? Is he on the Mavericks, the Knicks, the Nets or the Cal alumni? Carolyn Bivens, you can be certain, is going. According to Golfweek magazine, “it’s the latest blow to a tour which has lost seven tournaments since 2007,” including three in Hawaii. That’s real trouble, when people won’t come to Hawaii to play golf. The benchmark of this distress was that city on Lake Erie. Twenty years ago, the Indians and Browns played in Cleveland Municipal Stadium. To prove we know nothing, if someone asked which team might move the unanimous response would have been the Indians, who had pathetic crowds. The Browns sold out every game. However, the Browns shifted to Baltimore, while the Indians stayed, were provided a new park and had years of sellouts. Now the Browns are back. Sort of sporting musical chairs. For hundreds of millions of dollars. Candlestick Park opened in 1960 for the San Francisco Giants, then was expanded in 1970 and ‘71 to bring in the 49ers, who were playing in a dump, if a historic dump, called Kezar Stadium. Now Candlestick is a dump, or to be exact, “a pigsty,” as designated by former team president Eddie DeBartolo. The Niners, who won five Super Bowls, contend they deserve better. And they do. But 40 miles away in Santa Clara? San Francisco mayor Gavin Newsom doesn’t want to be remembered as the politico who couldn’t hang on to the city’s most famous, most successful and original hometown team, the one that didn’t move from New York, as the Giants, or Philadelphia, as the Warriors. But in this era when nothing is tied down, athletes, teams or golf commissioners, he doesn’t want the place once known as the “city that knows how,” to be put in the vise, squeezed during these times of foreclosures and declining tax collections. Newsom, on a Comcast program called “Chronicle Live,” said he wanted to “avoid being used as leverage” in the Niners’ negotiations with Santa Clara for that maybe-it-will-maybe-it-won’t stadium. That’s all sports has become, Mr. Mayor, leverage. Real Madrid has it. Ron Artest has it. Carolyn Bivens doesn’t. The next move is not very far off. As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009. - - - - - - http://www1.realclearsports.com/articles/2009/07/09/an_unstable_sporting_world_96424.html |
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Wednesday, July 8th, 2009SF Examiner: In Britain, every contest overflows with emotionBy Art Spander LONDON — Maybe they have the right idea here. Sports are not merely fun and games, items to be covered dispassionately — Giants, win; Raiders sign tackle — but reflections of history. In Britain, even the smallest of competitions invariably are “us against them.” “Them” can be a sporting club in the next town. Or Tiger Woods. Or at the moment, with The Ashes at stake in a cricket competition which extends back to 1877, Australia — a nation which started as an English penal colony. One of England’s stars, Kevin Pietersen, made the most banal of comments, alluding to the Aussies down a couple of stars from past teams which, of course, whupped the English. “Pietersen Expects Australia to Come Out Fighting,” said the headline in the Telegraph. All sports news is reported subjectively and patriotically, reminding one of that line about the World War II general, Bernard Montgomery, of whom Winston Churchill said, “In defeat unbeatable; in victory unbearable.” Nobody simply is beaten here, say as Randy Johnson when he was injured on Sunday. Losers are “brave” or “hopeless” or “worthless.” Or worse, were “cheated.” Somebody always is “accusing” an opponent of an impropriety. We have our issues, certainly, the Tuck Play (it was a fumble), but not like the Brits. When South Africa beat the British Lions in rugby a few days ago it was because one of the South African players gouged the eye of a Brit. “Question,” asked The Sun, “When can you gouge? Answer, when you turn out for South Africa.” The Sun went on to point out, “South Africa’s ruling body covered up Schalk Burger’s eye-gouging shame.” Burger was listed as “a thug.” So, with a variation on that theme, we describe the Warriors as pathetic, the 49ers as clueless, the A’s as disgraceful, the Raiders as mortifying. We say the Giants warn the Dodgers about using Manny. That might get some attention. And we take sides, as they do when Andy Murray, the tennis star, is at Wimbledon. “Hopes of a nation are with you, Andy.” Sure, “Hopes of a region are with you, Cal.” (Excepting those people at Stanford.) The reverse was when on a single weekend a few years ago, England flops in World Cup soccer, cricket, track and who knows what else, “We’re Rubbish,” proclaimed the Daily Mail. Imagine the English tabloid headlines on our flawed franchises. “Sell them Chris, if you know what’s good for you.” “Please don’t let the Sharks near the playoffs again.” “Why can’t Sabean find a slugger?” Newspapers are in trouble in Britain, as the United States, but like the Aussie cricketers, they come out fighting, battling for readers the way the English did at Bunker Hill, or was it Henman Hill at Wimbledon? Every contest is a matter of pride. Of good and evil. Of overflowing emotion. When Ana Ivanovic quit against Venus Williams at Wimbledon because of an injury, the Sun headline was “Venus sad for hurt Ana.” And about Andy Roddick’s upcoming quarter-final against Lleyton Hewitt, “Rod warns: Lleyt is great.” But not as great as the people who write sports in England. Be warned, they are not rubbish. Art Spander has been covering Bay Area sports since 1965 and also writes on www.artspander.com and www.realclearsports.com. E-mail him at typoes@aol.com. - - - - - - http://www.sfexaminer.com/sports/In-Britain-every-contest-overflows-with-emotion-50194442.html |
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Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009RealClearSports: Scandals Are as Old as College Sports ItselfBy Art Spander One autumn day in ’69 – 1869 – young men from Rutgers and Princeton engaged in what they called a football game. That surely was the last time real students were called upon for such competition. College sport these days is played by people chosen for the task – “student athletes,” as the NCAA describes them – and while they may go to class and even pass with flying honors (as compared to passing the football), they were brought in to win games. Or matches. It is an inescapable fact: the better the athlete, the better the team. Which is why we have this little contretemps at Memphis, wherein the best high school basketball player in the nation a couple of years back, Derrick Rose, was readily enrolled, even though he may have cheated on his entrance exam. And why the University of Southern California finds its reputation in danger on charges that Heisman Trophy winner Reggie Bush broke rules by accepting cash, a car and free housing, and charges that basketball star O.J. Mayo received improper payments from the school’s coach, Tim Floyd. The Sorbonne doesn’t have a home-and-home series with Cambridge. Or anyone. There is no such thing in Europe as intercollegiate sports. Or high school sports. Kids go to school to study and learn. If they play games, it is for a club. But this is the good old U.S. of A., where the idea is to fill stadiums and arenas, leading to hours of television coverage, all of which is accomplished by bringing in the Reggie Bushes and Derrick Roses. They purported themselves well, too, the Trojans and Tigers both reaching national championship games with Reggie and Derrick in the lineup. Here, we stick decals of our school on the back window and slogans – “How ’bout them dogs” – on the back bumper. In Britain, rear-window decals identify the dealer where the car was purchased. How ’bout them cylinders? It’s all a matter of talent. There’s a kid, runs the 40 in 4.4 and scored 30 touchdowns as a prep. Or maybe he’s 6-9 and averaged 25 points and 12 rebounds. Intellectually, he’s not Albert Einstein. But your rival is chasing him. And as the sports sociologist Harry Edwards points out, “If you don’t get him, they’ll get him and use him against you.” So Kelvin Sampson becomes a little too aggressive after coming to Indiana. So a long while ago, SMU gets the so-called Death Penalty for a zillion violations, but with Eric Dickerson and Craig James, the Mustangs did beat Texas, meaning it was worth it to the alums. So even Harvard – Harvard! – is accused of a number of questionable practices to work around NCAA rules by hiring an assistant basketball coach who had been traveling and playing pickup games with potential athletes. It’s not going to change. Ever. Penn State has expanded its stadium to more than 100,000. Michigan, Tennessee and Ohio State all are in six figures. You think those schools, you think any school in big time sports, might be scouring PE classes for a quarterback? Or a point guard? “Football,” said a man named Elbert Hubbard, “is a sport that bears the same relationship to education that bullfighting does to agriculture.” Ole! And back at you. “A school without football,” said Vince Lombardi, “is in danger of deteriorating into a medieval study hall.” As if Vince, who went from Fordham to coach in the NFL, knew anything about medieval study halls. Now, blocking and tackling, that was different. What will happen to USC or to Memphis is probably nothing. USC has been under a cloud for months – Bush has been on the New Orleans Saints since 2006 – and already Memphis is in full denial, insisting it found no proof Rose cheated on the exam. Derrick, of course, joined the NBA as soon as possible. The people who buy the season tickets are remarkably unmoved by any and all accusations. They don’t care how you win, they just want you to win. And to hell with anyone looking for trouble. It was in 1976 when Frank Boggs of the Oklahoma City Times, acknowledged to be the best sportswriter in the state, wrote a story that another NCAA investigation of the University of Oklahoma’s football program was under way. Boggs, merely the messenger, not the cause, was harassed, threatened and had to have police protection. A caller said he would burn down Boggs’ home. Eventually, Boggs moved to Colorado. Jack Taylor, who shared the byline with Boggs, had done pieces on the Mafia and corruption in government, but said public reaction to the football story was “much more controversial” than anything he ever had written. People don’t want the truth. They want championships. As a reporter since 1960, Art Spander is a living treasure of sports history. A recipient of the Dick McCann Memorial Award — given for his long and distinguished career covering professional football — he has earned himself a spot in the Pro Football Hall of Fame. And he has recently been honored with the Lifetime Achievement Award by the PGA of America for 2009.
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